Benet Spencer creates heavily collaged paintings of imaginary landscapes that are inhabited by animals, plants, and high-tech architecture. His process is partly reliant on computer-generated images that use pattern and repetition in the development of layered and densely constructed paintings.
Influences and starting-points include the relationship between Eastern and Western Art, traveling in the Far East and the teeming energy of its cities and countryside, European culture, and the history of art and design.
Whilst relating to the tradition of landscape painting these works also read as Sci-Fi dystopias. An imaginary vision of the modern world is offered that is a confused and saturated experience, a vision that is held in check through the elegance and refining nature of the painting process.
Recent Exhibitions
FantasyIsland, Metropole Galleries, Folkestone
14 Jan – 26 Feb 2006
Curated by Benet Spencer; Featuring: Phillip Allen, Geraint Evans, James Ireland, Benet Spencer, Johnny de Veras
http://www.metropole.org.uk
The 10th Planet, Tower Bridge Business Complex, London
2 - 18 June 2006
Curated by Julian Hughes Watts; Featuring: Sam Basu, Juan Bolivar, Gordon Cheung, Geraint Evans, Pete Fowler, Anthony Gross, Kounosuke Kawakami, David Kefford, Hirome Komai, Rui Matsunaga, Alex Gene Morrison, Office of Experiments, Stephen Pierce, Steven Rendall, Benet Spencer, Bill Stewart, Julian Hughes Watts, Willem Weismann
Inaugural Cube Noir Gallery, The Albany, Liverpool
14 Sept -19 Nov 2006
Curated by Gareth Kemp; Featuring: Peter Edge, Paul Elliker, Tim Ellis, Laird Galbraith, David Hancock, Gareth Kemp, Jonathan Owen, Luke Smith, Benet Spencer, Nick Sykes, Gina Ward
Seeking Tacit Utopias, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
27 Oct – 25 Nov 2006
Curated by Thomas M. Wright; Featuring: Andrew Bracey, Matthew Brown, Ross Chisholm, Katarina Forss, Andy Jackson, Elena Kopenkova, Ryan Mosley, Benet Spencer, Ian Whitfield, James Wright, Thomas M. Wright.
Future Exhibtions
Worlds End – Future Perfect, The Carlton Hotel. Melbourne, Australlia
Feb - March 2008
Curated by Steven Rendall